Paul Street observes:

“President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell have recently gone out on the political limb by denouncing the ‘barbarism’ of the latest terrorist decapitation of an American hostage in the Middle East.

“Yes, of course you have to be depraved practically beyond belief to cut off the head of a defenseless hostage, to film that act, and then to distribute the images across the world. Anyone who engages in such conduct has forfeited any claim they might have once had to being human. Barbarian? Absolutely. There are some things, one hopes, that everyone can agree on.

“Where, however, is the Bush administration’s disgust and anger over the actions of Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov, who is known for boiling his political opponents alive? His barbarian regime, which routinely tortures and kills dissidents, recently received $500 million from the self-declared guardians of global decency in the White House.”